The HIGH

Ok, I have finally come up with the perfect comparison for the High Museum of Art. A piñata! Just as a piñata is fill with sugary goodness on the inside yet still very elegant and attractive outside, the High is filled with a wide variety of amazing forms of art from around the globe but yet it is elegant and eye catching enough on the outside to be considered a true piece of art itself.

First, let us consider the outside. The usual perception of a white wall is dull, boring, drab, too plain, or just unattractive. However, this structure uses white in a different fashion. The High is ALL WHITE, EVERYWHERE, besides the hints of light grey you see every so often and the windows peering into the ALL WHITE interior. Depending on your taste and style you may or may not find this effective, but personally I think this is a very useful strategy. Being a museum it must stand out among the normal Atlanta buildings and it accomplishes this very well by contrasting its shape and color. The color is outstanding enough to break the mold and the luscious green lawn that curves around the building like a wave gives it a very clean, smooth appearance because when you think about it there isn’t really a lawn like that anywhere else in downtown Atlanta.   

Next would be the interior, although I don’t really find the color to be that large of an impact in this case. The design of the interior of the High is truly breath taking when you step back and look at it. If there is one thing I love in a building it is the ability to incorporate natural light into the lighting. Not only does this building do this, but it does it in a very graceful and creative way. Walking through the museum during the day you will probably notice that there really isn’t very much artificial lighting, and a majority of this comes from the large and vast amount of windows. In the atrium you can see the sunlight creeping in from the walls and projecting geometrical patterns on the walls. There are also the windows allowing the sunlight in from the ceilings. In one extension of the building on the top floor you can see that the entire ceiling is a grid of circular window with arched shape extruding toward the floor, giving it definition rather than just having a flat surface.